Pennsylvania Confirms Fifth Measles-Associated Death as Statewide Cases Hit 943

The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Sept. 30 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that an unvaccinated Lancaster County resident who tested positive for measles has died. It is the fifth death the state says meets its measles-associated definition this year.

Since the outbreak began in late April, confirmed cases now stand at 943 across 39 counties, with hospitalizations totaling 176. Forty of those infections were logged since Sept. 28, with detected cases increasing in recent months. Four of the 943 patients, less than 1 percent, had been vaccinated.

Officials released little else about the latest death and said the identity of the deceased would not be released. The department cited privacy laws, saying families “deserve the dignity to mourn in private.”

The outbreak, at 943 cases, is larger than the 2025 West Texas outbreak, which ran from January to August with a reported 762 cases, but falls short of the South Carolina outbreak, which ran from October 2025 to April 2026 with 997 cases.

Measles is a respiratory virus that spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes. It can linger in air and on surfaces for up to two hours. Symptoms start 7 to 21 days after exposure, and include fever, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes, and then a rash that begins on the head and moves down the body. Patients are typically contagious four days before the rash and four days after.

The department said death occurs in one to three patients per 1,000 cases, and nearly 20 percent of the people it has identified with measles have been hospitalized.

Two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the department, provide 97 percent lifetime protection. People with two documented doses do not need another. Adults with one dose, or with no records they can find, are asked to speak with a clinician or pharmacist.

Pennsylvania vaccine providers administer an average of around 25,000 MMR doses a month. That almost doubled to 49,000 in August, and passed 53,000 in September, as residents seek the vaccine from doctors, pharmacies, and clinics statewide.

Department nurses, working at state health centers and pop-up clinics, have also administered more than 8,500 MMR doses in 2026, including more than 5,500 at 180 clinics in affected communities as part of the state’s own outreach vaccination program.

Currently, the CDC has confirmed measles in 47 U.S. jurisdictions, including South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. Deaths from the disease in 2026 have only been reported from the outbreak in Pennsylvania. In 2025, three measles deaths were reported in unvaccinated individuals: two in Texas and one in New Mexico.

The CDC’s 2026 death tally diverges from Pennsylvania’s reporting, with the two jurisdictions using different criteria to classify measles deaths. The CDC attributes a death to measles only when the National Center for Health Statistics lists the disease as the underlying cause on the death record. Pennsylvania attributes a death to measles when it is within 30 days of symptom onset in someone with a positive measles test, unless the death is from an unrelated cause such as a car crash.

The CDC reported one 2026 U.S. measles death on Sept. 23 after months at zero, and then a second on Sept. 29, after Pennsylvania officials came out on Sept. 24 to say they did not know which death the federal agency was citing.

Of the five deaths the state reported, county coroners challenged how some were labeled.

The first two measles deaths reported by the state were Lancaster County infants who died on Aug. 25. Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said one of the infants had died from a spleen laceration and that measles was ruled out as the cause of death as the spleen showed no swelling. He said the other death, a 6-week-old with the inherited brain disorder Amish lethal microcephaly, had died from measles.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen stood by both as measles-associated deaths and pressed the CDC to list the deaths the state had reported.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has backed the county-level findings over the state’s reporting, which he called premature.

The other deaths reported by Pennsylvania were an adult in Jefferson County and an 18-year-old in Mifflin County.